Just Another Night
by RedSavant
Summary: A short poem about Christmas aboard the Sunny. Not at all serious. Spoilers for post-Thriller Bark.


**This is a short, (hopefully) sweet, and not-at-all serious look at what the Strawhats do for Christmas. Poetry fans, please look away; here there be meter destruction and misuse of amphibrach. Sorry.**

* * *

'Twas the night before Christmas  
And all through the ship  
Not a mainsail was blowing  
Not one single rip.

Their navigator, Nami,  
Soon kenned to the cause;  
While they weren't in the Calm Belt  
It still gave her pause:

"We're being pulled in  
By a current that's growing  
So unless you like swimming  
I'd suggest you start rowing."

The crew let out groans,  
Save for one 'Mellorine';  
While the Strawhats could row,  
Well, let's say they weren't keen.

The Sunny, you see,  
Is a Brigantine Sloop;  
There's not much can shift it  
Aside from a Coup.

Still, it had to be done,  
So they trudged belowdecks,  
Feeling already  
Stiff arms and sore necks.

(Here you may ask,  
"Hey, wait a sec, pudge!  
The Sunny is huge!  
No way it would budge!"

I'll let Kuma answer:  
'It _is_ a big ship.  
If you could go anywhere…  
Well, just have a nice trip.')

So anyway, the Strawhats  
All strained themselves rowing,  
And soon out of the current  
The Sunny was going.

Crisis averted,  
The Strawhats returned  
To up-too-late projects  
And bedsheets unturned.

But one, the musician,

Remembered the date;  
In his warm (bony) heart  
He hoped it wasn't too late.

You'd be shocked at the cash  
One can make on the street  
If one's fiddle is nimble  
And one's fingers are fleet;

It'd been a small stretch,  
But he'd found something nice  
For each one of his nakama,  
No matter the price.

And now it was time  
To put plans into action.  
Brook sneaked all around  
In quite skeletal fashion.

By Luffy he placed  
A small spyglass, of bronze;  
For Sanji, a cookbook  
By a chef, name of Wanze.

By Usopp's bunk Brook  
Left a new journal and pen  
So that Great Captain Usopp  
Might set sail again.

At Chopper's bedside  
He left boxes of sweets;  
About twice the boy's weight  
In sugary treats.

A sword maintenance kit:  
To Zoro it went;  
About fifty years old,  
But the time was well-spent.

For Franky, a new type  
Of cola was left;  
With more bubbles, it packed  
Quite a large bit more heft.

With the men taken care of,  
That left only two;  
But here Brook faced a problem  
Of just what to do.

"It just isn't polite,  
Not with ladies abed,  
To go sneaking around,"  
The tall skeleton said.

So he wouldn't go in;  
He'd just knock on the door  
Put the gifts just inside  
Then come back to this floor.

Though a simple, short plan,  
It was done with panache;  
A quiet 'Sumimasen'  
And a quick downstairs dash.

It hadn't been hard  
To find Nami's gold sextant;  
Robin's new book moreso,  
Since there was only one extant.

With the gift-giving finished,  
Every wrapped present placed,  
Brook snuck back into bed  
With a smile on his skull. (Yohohoho.)

As the sun rose next morning,  
Luffy woke with a shout:  
"Alright everyone! Up!  
Get out of bed! Out!"

Brook woke with surprise  
To feel weight on his chest:  
Several crudely-wrapped boxes  
And around them, a vest.

"Everyone – you –you all – you –  
You got these for me?"  
Brook asked, suddenly finding it  
Quite hard to see.

"You're our nakama, Brook!"  
Chopper chirped; Usopp, too.  
"You got presents for us;  
We got presents for you!"

It seemed all the Strawhats  
Had snuck out that night  
Leaving presents behind them  
And in one case a fight.

So under the kotatsu*  
They all rushed in a flash  
To open their presents  
(Nami mostly got cash).

As Brook sat, legs entangled  
With a shiny new hat on,  
A thought crossed his mind  
That he often had that** on.

It wasn't about  
The new things or the clothes;  
The exquisite food; no, rather,  
As everyone knows,

It's the feeling you get,  
Voices raised high in song;  
Here is where we are family.  
Here is where we belong.

* * *

**So there we go. As I said, not serious at all, but hopefully it gave you a **_**little**_** bit of Warm Fuzzy at least.**

*** **_**Kotatsu**_**: A heated table used in a lot of Japanese homes. Google it; they look really comfy.**

**** I meant for this to be read as 'thhat', like an improper form of 'thought'. Not 'that', as in 'that over there'.**


End file.
